Data centers that support one or more businesses, factories or residential areas typically comprise one or more racks or cabinets filled with interconnection sites for optical fibers and fiber optic cables. In a typical installation, fiber optic cables that include multiple optical fibers from an external source (these are often known as “outside plant” or “OSP” fibers) enter the cabinet and are spliced together with individual optical fibers known as “pigtails.” Splicing typically occurs in a splice tray or similar component that includes multiple splice sites. The pigtail fibers are then connected within the cabinet to standard termination sites. The termination sites include termination ports that connect optically with “jumper” optical fibers or patch cords that exit the rack or cabinet to supply data or other information in optical form to the remainder of the building or site. The termination sites can be provided in a number of forms, including fiber distribution cartridges, fiber distribution modules, multi-position adapter couplers and/or bezels.
Patch cords leaving the termination sites are often routed along a support in front of the termination sites toward the side of the shelf. A plurality of patch cords 200 exiting termination sites 202 mounted in a shelf 204 having an opening 205 are illustrated in FIG. 9. It is known to provide fiber retainer rings 206, illustrated in FIG. 8, for retaining and organizing the patch cords 200 leaving each of the plurality of horizontally aligned termination sites 202. These rings may be flexible and include a gap 208 that can be opened sufficiently wide to allow the patch cords 200 to be inserted and removed. These retainers 206 are mounted in close proximity to the termination sites and generally must be removed when a termination site is added to or removed from the shelf to avoid interfering with the installation and/or removal of the termination site. It may also be difficult to access the patch cords closest to the retainer rings because of the small space between the retainer rings and the termination sites. Placing the fiber retainer rings further away from the termination sites might reduce such problems but would disadvantageously increase the size of the shelf assemble. It would therefore be desirable to provide an improved fiber retainer ring that supports a high density of patch cords, is easy to use and that does not significantly interfere with the mounting and removal of termination sites or with accessing certain patch cords connected to the termination sites.